National Coral Reef Monitoring Program: Towed-diver Surveys of Benthic Habitat, Key Benthic Species, and Marine Debris Sightings of the Pacific Remote Island Areas since 2014

Description

The towed-diver method is used to conduct benthic surveys, assessing large-scale disturbances (e.g., bleaching) and quantifying benthic components such as habitat complexity/type and the general distribution and abundance patterns of live coral, crustose coralline algae (CCA), macroalgae, and macroinvertebrates. Surveys are conducted in the Hawaiian and Mariana Archipelagos, American Samoa, and the Pacific Remote Island Areas as part of the NOAA National Coral Reef Monitoring Program (NCRMP). A suitable method for assessing relatively large areas of reef habitat, the method involves towing a pair of SCUBA divers—one benthic and one fish—behind a small boat for approximately 50 min following the ~15-m depth contour and covering about 2–3 km of habitat. Each diver is equipped with a towboard and attempts to maintain a constant elevation above the surface of the reef (~1 m) for the duration of the survey. A complete towed-diver survey is divided into 10, 5-min segments, with visual observations recorded by 5-min segment. The visual estimate data provided in this dataset were collected during towed-diver surveys which includes percentage cover of total live hard corals, stressed hard corals, soft corals, sand, coralline algae, and macroalgae, and the number of individual macroinvertebrates (crown of thorns starfish (COTS), sea urchins, and giant clams). Benthic habitat complexity and type data are also collected as part of the survey with the following habitat type categories: continuous reef, spur and groove, patch reefs, rock boulders, pavement, rubble flat, sand flats, pinnacle, and wall. The data were collected around the Pacific Remote Island Areas as part of the NOAA Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center (PIFSC), Coral Reef Ecosystem Program (CREP) led missions since 2014. These data can be accessed online via the NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) Ocean Archive.

Resources

Name Format Description Link
0 Ecosystem Sciences Division standard operating procedures: data collection for towed-diver benthic and fish surveys. PIFSC Administrative Report H-18-02. https://doi.org/10.25923/59sb-sy51 https://accession.nodc.noaa.gov/0157633
0 Observations from towed-diver surveys of the benthic habitat by the NOAA Coral Reef Ecosystem Program (CREP) conducted at Wake Island in 2014. https://accession.nodc.noaa.gov/0157552
0 Observations from towed-diver surveys of the benthic habitat by the NOAA Coral Reef Ecosystem Program (CREP) conducted at the Pacific Island Remote Areas in 2015. https://accession.nodc.noaa.gov/0157564
0 Observations from towed-diver surveys of the benthic habitat by the NOAA Coral Reef Ecosystem Program (CREP) conducted at Wake, Jarvis, Howland, and Baker in 2017. https://accession.nodc.noaa.gov/0164023
0 View the complete metadata record on InPort for more information about this dataset. https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/inport/item/5567
0 Pacific Island Fisheries Science Center homepage https://www.pifsc.noaa.gov
0 Coral Reef Ecosystem Program website, Benthic Monitoring https://www.pifsc.noaa.gov/cred/benthic_monitoring.php
0 Information about the NOAA National Coral Reef Monitoring Program (NCRMP) on the NOAA Coral Reef Information System website. http://www.coris.noaa.gov/monitoring/
0 The information provided on this page seeks to define how the GCMD Keywords are structured, used and accessed. It also provides information on how users can participate in the further development of the keywords. https://www.earthdata.nasa.gov/learn/find-data/idn/gcmd-keywords
33 NOAA Data Management Plan for this record on InPort. https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/inportserve/waf/noaa/nmfs/pifsc/dmp/pdf/5567.pdf
0 NOAA Coral Reef Ecosystem Program website, survey methods page, which includes a brief description of the towed-diver survey method used since 2000 to survey the benthic habitat. http://www.pifsc.noaa.gov/cred/survey_methods.php

Tags

  • kingman reef (06n162w0001)
  • crep
  • coral cover
  • hard coral cover dead percentage
  • doc/noaa/nmfs/pifsc
  • united states of america
  • pacific remote islands marine national monument
  • reef monitoring and assessment
  • johnston atoll (16n169w0001)
  • aquatic habitat
  • towed diver
  • wake atoll
  • corals
  • coral reef ecosystem division
  • baker island
  • pifsc
  • equatorial pacific ocean
  • jarvis island (00s160w0001)
  • biosphere
  • survey - coral reef
  • pacific remote island areas
  • national coral reef monitoring program
  • palmyra atoll (05n162w0001)
  • survey
  • oceans
  • photic zone corals
  • coral reef conservation program
  • marine invertebrates
  • reef and/or bottom regime - percent cover
  • population density
  • hard coral cover
  • survey - biological
  • noaa
  • numeric data sets
  • nmfs
  • hard coral cover live percentage
  • macroinvertebrates
  • biology
  • baker island (00n176w0001)
  • us doc
  • debris
  • habitats
  • howland island
  • pacific islands fisheries science center
  • u.s. department of commerce
  • earth science
  • tds
  • benthic biology
  • line islands
  • national marine fisheries service
  • triennial
  • pria
  • tows
  • marine biology
  • coral communities
  • cred
  • howland island (00s176w0001)
  • survey - swimmer/diver
  • central pacific ocean
  • usa minor outlying islands
  • 743
  • visual estimate
  • reef habitat
  • coral reef ecology
  • ocean basin
  • towed-diver surveys
  • habitat - benthic
  • ecosystem sciences division
  • coral
  • temperature
  • coastal processes
  • johnston atoll
  • hi'ialakai
  • coral mortality
  • macroinvertebrate census
  • census
  • zoology
  • coral reefs
  • pacific ocean
  • towboard
  • country/territory
  • wake atoll (19n167e0001)
  • coral reef studies
  • coral reef ecosystem program
  • depth - sensor

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